---

Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 23, p. 301.

ADMINISTRATION 3o r early Hindu times; and the practice of measuring palm and other garden lands into bighas seems to belong to the pre-Musalman rulers. Finally, the Kanarese term shilotar shows that from early times-special rules have been in force to encourage the reclamation of salt wastes. During the sixteenth century the officers of the Ahmadnagar king- dom are said to have measured the rice land and reduced the state share to one-sixth, and in the uplands to have continued the levy of a plough cress. The husbandmen were treated as proprietary holders. Early in the seventeenth century Malik Ambar, the Ahmadnagar minister, introduced a new system based on that of Todar Mal. According to Major Jervis, Malik Ambar's chief innovation was to make the settlement direct with the village instead of with the hereditary revenue superintendents and accountants. His next step was to find out the yield of the land. With this object he arranged the rice lands into four classes. Later in the seventeenth century Sivaj!, by his minister Annaji Dattu (1668-81), divided the lands into twelve classes. The Portuguese, in Bassein and Salsette, leased the land to fazendeiros, or hereditary farmers of land, at a foro or quit-rent ; but the payment by tenants to pro prietors was regulated on the ancient system. The eighty-seven years (173o-i8r,,) of Maratha management form three periods : thirty years during which no change was introduced ; thirty years when fresh surveys were made, new cesses were levied, and revenue farming became general; and twenty-seven years when revenue farming was universal. In 1774, when Salsette and Karanja were acquired by the British, the people were in great misery and revenue was largely in arrears. In 1798-9 a new system was introduced. All the petty taxes levied by the Portuguese and Marathas were abolished, and the Government demand was fixed at one-third of the average produce of all lands except shilotri lands, which were charged with one-fifth. From the cession of the Peshwa's possession in 1817 to the completion of the original survey settlement in 1886 the revenue history also belongs to three periods: eighteen years (1817-35) in which the establishment of a system of village accounts was substituted for one of revenue farmers, and rates were revised ; seventeen years (1835-52) of further reductions; and since then, the revenue survey. In 1895 a resettlement was undertaken which was completed in 1904. The survey found that the cultivated area had increased by ro,ooo acres, and the settlement enhanced the total revenue by nearly 4 lakhs of rupees to 14 lakhs. The average rates are : ` dry' land, 5 annas (maximum Rs. 2-2, minimum 2 annas) ; rice land, Rs. 3-i r (maximum Rs. 8-Io, minimum Rs. r-6) ; and garden lands, Rs. r-I0 (maximum Rs. 5-8, minimum i r annas). V 2